Placement disruption in long-term kinship and nonkinship foster care

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore factors related to placement disruption in long-term kinship and nonkinship foster care in a Nordic country. The study included 136 children aged 4–13 years in kinship and nonkinship foster care in Norway in the year 2000, with updates for the year 2008. Placement and demographic information and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) were collected from foster parents and youths. Generalized linear mixed model analysis was undertaken. A thorough literature review was done in order to study association between disruption and relevant variables.

None of the predominant variables from previous literature were significantly associated with disruption for this sample of children in long-term foster care.

Since long-term stable foster care (rather than adoption) is the preferred option in Nordic as well as some other European countries, there is a need to explore the processes of inclusion that give children a lifelong commitment to their foster families